As salam alaikum,
The former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad
was in Dhaka for a brief period, to attend the 42nd
Convocation of Dhaka University; he also delivered a
speech at a meeting organized by Bangladesh Enterprise
Institute (BEI) on "Islam and the West”. Mahathir’s
visit and speech raised a lot of interest in
Bangladesh.
I am sharing article regarding both of his speeches.
In the first one he discussed Islamic economics,
politics and unity among Muslims; and in the 2nd one
he stressed the importance of education and Islamic
civilization. One thing I liked about his speech was
that he emphasized the need to move away from blaming
USA and Israel for all our problems, which is all too
common among so many of the Muslims; another thing me
mentioned was “Ikra does not mean the reading of holy
Quran only, but also all branches of education,
including science and technology,”.
Maqsud
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamicminds
Mahathir asks Muslim states not to trade in US dollars
Staff Correspondent
http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/12/19/d4121901011.htm
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad
yesterday urged Muslim countries not to trade in US
dollars as it only strengthens the capabilities of the
United States to develop and supply arms to Israel
that 'they then use to kill Muslims'.
He also urged Muslim countries to put to one side
their differences and concentrate on developing their
economic potential and argued that democracy has
'weakened' many Muslim countries.
Mahathir was talking at a breakfast meeting organised
by the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) on "Islam
and the West".
"The same dollars that we trade in are being used to
develop and supply US arms to Israel that kill
Muslims," Mahathir stated. "I've asked Arabs to sell
oil in other currencies. If we don't use US dollars,
the currency will become useless".
He explained that if the oil and other raw materials
possessed by Muslim countries are sold in currencies
other than dollars, the dollar would devalue. "If the
US is poor it cannot dominate the world."
Mahathir renewed his earlier proposal of a new joint
currency, the Muslim Dinar, that Muslim countries
could use to boost trade and economic cooperation
among themselves. Mahathir also warned that China,
India, Japan and Korea would be the new powers
dominating the world in the future and that these
countries may follow "a tendency of the powerful to
throw their power around". He said these nations could
take charge and warned that, "We may escape the
Europeans and the US only to find ourselves behind the
newer dominating powers. Today the problem may be the
US, but tomorrow it may be these countries."
He emphasised the need to strengthen the Muslim Ummah.
"Blaming the US or Israel will not help us," he said.
"Muslim countries would have to unite to develop
themselves and that is the only way to save the
Ummah."
"Our disunity is the cause of our weaknesses and that
is how other countries take advantage of us," he said.
"They (the West) push democracy in our lands because
they know we do not understand it. Democracy is a very
good system if you know how to work it. However, we
have seen that it has weakened a number of our Muslim
nations by splitting the polity." He said the Muslim
nations are not exploiting their potential and the
rich ones are not helping to develop the poorer Muslim
nations.
Mahathir also stressed that Muslim nations needed to
put their "houses in order" and should focus more on
the material aspects of society which would result in
"a greater fulfillment of our potentials and
capabilities".
He stressed the importance of education and suggested
the creation of 'centres of excellence' at the very
best universities in the Muslim world that would
allocate scholarships to the cream of Muslim students.
He said that this would revive the mastery of
knowledge that Muslims had before the 14th century.
Mahathir observed that most of the top scholars in US
and European research institutes are of Asian origin
and there needs to be a reversal of the 'brain drain'.
He said this could happen if Asian countries valued
the knowledge of these Muslim scholars not only in
monetary terms but also by providing them their
freedom of opinion. He said he was prepared to travel
to various Muslim countries and develop a core group
that would initiate the union of such Muslim
interests.
The eminent personalities at the breakfast meeting was
former foreign minister Dr Kamal Hossain, former state
minister for foreign affairs Abul Hassan Chowdhury,
former foreign secretaries Faruk Chowdhury, Mohammad
Mohsin and Farook Sobhan (the organiser of the
meeting), the Prime Minister's Adviser MM Rezaul
Karim, beside other former Bangladeshi envoys and
local intellectuals.
Mahathir receives PhD in Law : Muslims lag behind for
misinterpretation of Islamic rules
By Mahathir receives PhD in Law : Muslims lag behind
for misinterpretation of Islamic rules
Dec 18, 2004, 12:46
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_14669.shtml
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad,
who was adorned with honorary Doctor of Laws by Dhaka
University yesterday, told his audience of academics,
students and elite that the Muslims are lagging behind
largely because of misinterpretation of Islamic rules.
“Ikra does not mean the reading of holy Quran only,
but also all branches of education, including science
and technology,” said the architect of turning a
Muslim country into a modern state exploiting all the
state-of-art innovations of science and technology.
He was speaking at the 42nd Convocation of Dhaka
University, attended by President Prof. Iajuddin
Ahmed, Judges, DU Vice-chancellor Prof. SMA Faiz,
ministers, diplomats and academics.
Dr Mahathir, who commands deep respect in the Muslim
world for his acumen as well as his thoughts on how to
ensure welfare of the Muslim ummah, said many Muslim
countries enforce Shariah laws aim of which is to
ensure justice. But, there is a tendency of giving
more importance to punishment than establishing
justice under it.
Accepting the honorary degree, Dr Mahathir presented a
comparative study between God’s laws and man-made
laws. He said, “Man-made laws are far being perfect
and that is why we need to keep on amending the laws.”
On the other hand, he said, divine laws are perfect,
“but unfortunately these laws are interpreted by mere
men--and interpretation by them may be wrong”.
On each of God’s laws there are many interpretations
which are contrary to each other. It is difficult to
determine which interpretation is right and which
wrong. So, Dr Mahathir said, “ we don’t get full
benefit of God’s laws”.
Stressing establishment of the rule of law, he said, ”
We are ruled by whims and fancies of individuals.
Man-made laws are far from being perfect when bad laws
obviously rule on us.”
About independence of the judiciary, Mahathir said
Judges should, of course, be independent. It is
assumed that they would not be influenced by anybody
and they would be able to apply the rules with
impartiality.
But, he said, “Judges are also human beings. They have
their feelings, they may have political leanings,
which impact the impartiality in dispensation of
justice. Independence of judges does not mean the
justice. We cannot call it the rule of law.”
Citing examples of advanced countries, he said
Presidents select judges and, as a result, it becomes
difficult for the judges to deliver fair justice.
On the contempt-of-court law, he said this scares the
people criticizing the court. As a result, the result
can be poor. It is possible of course to impeach
judges.
Advising students of Dhaka University, he hoped that
the students would be going to wider world equipped
with better knowledge and would be better able to
contribute to the improvement of society they live in.
Referring to the Convocation, he said, “ This is not
the end for the quest of knowledge. The process of
acquisition of knowledge never ends--it goes on
throughout the life.”
Making a flashback on Islamic civilization, Dr
Mahathir said, “ We see how a great civilization was
built initiated by the formerly ignorant Jaheliat
Arab, which embraced Islam.”
He said the Muslims in early century went to Greece to
acquire knowledge, they translated and studied the
world of Greeks, Persians and Indians. He noted that
Europeans had access to Greek libraries of Muslims in
order to learn the teachings of great philosophers,
scientists and mathematicians. With that effort, he
reminded, the dark ages of Europeans ended and they
began building their present civilizations.
© Copyright 2003 by The New Nation
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do?
http://my.yahoo.com
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
It is better to give....
Especially when giving to a child in poverty.
Click here to meet a child you can help.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/.haQaA/0nhJAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I
am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in
any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved
otherwise.
If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily
digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your
mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
title "change to daily digest".
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
